The present invention generally relates to catalytic processes and in particular embodiments, catalyst shapes and structures to enhance catalytic activity.
Catalytic processes are used in enumerable chemical processes, with some estimates suggesting that 90% of all commercially produced chemical products involve catalysts at some stage of their manufacture. Examples include catalytic cracking in the petroleum refining industry, catalytic oxidation in many large-scale chemical production methods, highly specialized catalytic reactions in fine chemical production, catalytic hydrogenation in the food processing industry, polymer production, and reduction of pollutants in transportation and industrial emissions.
Several factors affect the efficiency of catalytic processes, including optimizing reactant exposure to the catalyst, activation energy of the catalyst, minimizing the catalyst's degradation, and improving the regeneration of catalyst when required. Improvements in one or more of these factors would be beneficial across a broad spectrum of catalytic processes.